


Don't Forget to Call Home

by isabeau25



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 00:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12876072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: Just because Keith has decided to join the Blades of Marmora, doesn't mean the team is going to let him disappear from their lives.





	Don't Forget to Call Home

“So why are you really doing this?”

Keith looked up at Lance standing in the doorway of his room, his expression unusually solemn.

“I already told you,” Keith went back to packing.

“Look, if this is about feeling like you don’t have a Lion with Shiro back in Black…” Lance stepped into the room, letting the door slide shut behind him.

“No,” Keith said firmly.

He did not want to go a second round of that particular conversation.

“Red misses you, and I know she would be happy to have you back,” Lance finished anyway.

“That’s not it,” Keith shook his head, “it’s not. I’m not cut out to be the Black Paladin. I was only doing it because Shiro wanted me too. The team is better off with him leading. I wasn’t any good at it, anyway.”

“Well, you did get off to a rough start,” Lance sat on the bed next to Keith’s bag.

It wasn’t a very big bag. Keith didn’t have much that was important enough to take with him.

“But once you got your feet under you, you did good,” Lance nudged at Keith’s shin with his foot.

“That was mostly you,” Keith snorted.

“It wasn’t,” there was enough earnestness in Lance’s voice that Keith looked up at him.

“All of this stuff with the Coalition,” Keith straightened, “the talks and the shows and buttering people up. I know it’s important. I understand why Allura wants us to do it, but knowing that there are people risking their lives to get the information we need, while we’re putting on air shows makes my skin crawl. I can’t do it.”

Lance took a breath and let it out slowly, “it just feels wrong that you’re leaving.”

“It’s…” Keith sat on the other side of the bag, hand coming up unconsciously to rub his chest, “hard. I don’t like being separated from you guys, but this makes the most sense, especially now that Shiro is flying Black again.”

“You sure about that?” Lance eyed him sideways.

“Yeah,” Keith nodded, trying to force all his conviction into his voice, “I’m sure.”

“Don’t know that I agree,” Lance pushed himself up with a resolved sigh, “but you’re just about as stubborn as I am, so we probably won’t get anywhere arguing over it.”

“I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not,” Keith smiled up at him.

“You should take what you can get, man,” Lance offered him his hand.

Keith took it, thinking Lance intended to shake his hand, and instead found himself pulled up into another hug.

“Just be careful, okay,” Lance squeezed him tight, “I won’t be there to bail you out.”

Keith huffed out a laugh and squeezed Lance back, “that goes double for you.”

“I’ll do my best if you do,” Lance pushed him back enough to see his face.

“Deal,” Keith agreed.

“Good,” Lance let him go, “and don’t forget to call home.”

* * *

Apparently, Keith had thought Lance had been joking when he had told him to call home.

Lance had not been joking.

It had been a week since Keith left, and Lance knew he had been going straight into another high risk, high stakes mission, and they hadn’t heard anything. Lance had even checked with Shiro, assuming that if Keith was going to keep in touch with anyone, it would be Shiro, but he hadn’t heard from him either. He told Lance not to worry; the Blades would have told them if something was wrong.

Lance did worry though. He trusted the Blades, he really did, but he trusted them as allies, not as caretakers of their wayward teammate. There was a lot they didn’t include in their reports to the paladins. Kolivan’s report had included Regris’s death, but not that Kolivan had almost left both he and Keith behind the mission before that. Lance had had to learn that from Keith. The Blades were just a little too willing to sacrifice people to the cause for Lance to feel comfortable with Keith working with them alone.

He couldn’t quite find the right way to say something about it though, and he wouldn’t have known who to tell about his misgivings anyway. Not Keith, who wouldn’t see the problem, not Shiro, who seemed just fine with Keith leaving to work with the Blades. He could have told Hunk, but he wouldn’t be able to do any more about it then Lance could, and it would just stress him out.

Lance would just have to settle for messaging Keith.

_Are you alive?_

Their communication system would hold the message until it could establish a secure line with Keith’s comm, and then Keith had to actual have his comm around to notice. He wouldn’t have it with him if he was on another mission; he would be using the Blade’s comm systems instead. So Lance would have to wait.

Which, of course, Lance was excellent at.

Excellent might have been an exaggeration. He could occupy himself for a significant amount of time, at least. He went a couple rounds on the shooting range, did the dishes someone (Pidge for sure; it was always Pidge, unless it was Allura) left in the sink. He checked in with Shiro about anything he needed help with, but he never needed help, and Shiro was too engrossed in his conversation with Coran to make anything up. He checked the medbay inventory and made note of the things they were running low on for their next supply run, and he downloaded the latest round of intel from their allies onto his tablet. There was a lot of it, and not just from the Blades.

Then he went to take care of Kalknecker, because when all else failed, the cow liked him.

He got gross cow kisses in exchange for his work cleaning out her bedding and getting her fresh feed. The castle could grow grass, randomly enough, and now that they had a cow, that seemed extremely practical. She settled down with her legs folded under her to chew her cud, and he sprawled on the grass with his head pillowed on her side to read the intel reports.

He was engrossed in supply line raids that seemed to be pointing them in the direction of one of the Galra’s major shipyards when his comm finally beeped.

_…yes. Why?_

Lance huffed and pushed Kalknecker’s nose away when she tried to investigate the new noise.

_You said you’d call. It’s been a week. For all we know, you’re lying in a ditch dying somewhere._

Lance was channeling his mother, and he didn’t care.

_A ditch in space?_

_Not the point._

Kalknecker laid her head on Lance’s lap, and he scratched her cheeks obligingly.

_The reports came through, didn’t they? From the missions I was on?_

Lance rolled his eyes. Not the same thing at all.

_We’ve gotten three reports from the BoM since you left, but they didn’t tell us who was on the missions. I knew you were on the first one, but someone died on the second, and they didn’t say who._

_I’m not dead. That was Ootib._

Lance sighed, leaning back harder into Kalknecker. Keith hadn’t said much about Regris’s death, but he had said enough for Lance to know it had upset him.

_I’m sorry._

Lance got a good five minutes of message being typed ellipses after that, and he went back to reading while Keith figured out what he wanted to say.

_I didn’t know him, and I wasn’t on that mission, but thanks._

Lance wanted to be able to see Keith so he could gauge his body language to tell just how upset he actually was over it, but he had to settle for snapping a picture of Kalknecker’s head in his lap with the caption “Kalknecker sends love”.

Keith answered with _I miss milk._

“That’s almost as good as him missing you,” Lance laughed, stroking the cow between the ears.

_So other than that, how is life with the BoM?_

_Busy. Quiet when we’re not. Everyone is so focused on their assignments that they don’t spend much time doing anything else in between missions._

Lance translated that as ‘lonely’ and wasn’t that surprised. He liked working with the Blades, but none of them had struck him as particularly social. Still, Keith liked quiet.

_Must be a nice change of pace._

_I like the busy parts. It’s good to feel like we’re getting somewhere with the mission, but it’s weird not to have you guys around._

Lance took a minute to think about how to respond to that. It wasn’t like he hadn’t expected Keith to miss them. He just hadn’t been sure if missing them would have much of a measurable impact. Keith adapted well to new circumstances, and he always seemed to adjust quickly. Honestly, Lance had assumed Keith would adjust to being away from them with in a day or two and not be bothered much after that. Lance didn’t like that it was bothering him, but well…

_We miss you too._

* * *

Lance’s comm beeped at 3am, Castle time, and he begrudgingly rolled over and pushed his eye mask up on his head.

_Still not dying in a ditch._

He squinted at the message, then groaned. He didn’t know what time the Blades were on, but Keith definitely knew what time it was here at the castle. Keith was secretly a troll, and Lance had always known it.

He sent him a thumbs up emoji, anyway, before going back to sleep.

* * *

Hunk was stress baking. Well, stress cooking. Stress recipe testing… six pies, three new ice cream flavors, seven different kinds of cookies, some kind of pink pasta, four different sauces, and three giant pots of soup.

Hunk was stressed.

He was just rolling out what he thought might be good lasagna noodle dough when his comm went off.

_I’ve been trying to get a hold of Lance for the last two days. Is everything okay?_

Hunk was seized by sudden guilt. He hadn’t even thought about that, and now that he did, he was actually surprised Shiro hadn’t contacted Keith. That was kind of bad. He should have made sure someone had told Keith. This was totally the sort of thing Keith would want to know.

 _Lance is in a cryo-pod,_ he sent quickly.

Then he realized that sounded bad.

_Sorry! He’ll be fine. Everyone is okay! Just a rough mission._

Keith was quick to reply, _what happened?_

_We were evacing a city the Galra were attacking, and Lance was on the ground helping with getting people out, and he ended up having to leave his lion, and_

The timer went off and Hunk hit send in a hurry, then went to rescue his eighth cookie experiment. He had to get them off the cooking sheet and onto the cooling rack before he could get back to Keith or they would have gotten weird and soggy.

_Hunk?_

_Sorry! Had to save the cookies. Some of the debris from the fight fell down on the city and the building Lance was in collapsed._

There was a pause, then _he was planet side by himself?_

Hunk frowned at the comm. He hadn’t been very happy about that either. He had even said something about it at the time, but they had been in a hurry, and Shiro had wanted Lance there because he was good at calming down panicked civilians. He said they couldn’t spare two lions from the fight.

_Yeah, Pidge is off following a lead on her brother, and Shiro didn’t want to send more than one Lion away from the fight._

There was a long pause, and Hunk wondered if Keith was thinking the same thing he was. Keith had been bad about going off by himself as the Black Paladin until Lance had gotten him to stop, but he had never really liked anyone else going solo into danger.

_How long will he be in?_

Apparently, Keith wasn’t going to share his thought on that.

_Coran thinks around 32 hours, so just another 6 hours, I hope._

Hunk picked up a cookie and blew on it to make sure it wasn’t too hot, then took a bite. He wrinkled his nose at the flavor. Not all experiments ended well, in the kitchen or anywhere else.

_How do you feel about pickled mustard, burnt sugar, jet fuel flavored cookies?_

_Gross._

Hunk snorted. Yeah, he couldn’t disagree with that. He took another bite anyway. It was always important to taste everything at least twice to make sure he really understood the flavor profile.

Nope, not any better.

_How are you doing?_

Hunk dumped the latest batch into the recycler and picked up one of the ginger-ish snap cookies to get the bad taste out of his mouth.

_I’m okay I guess. It was just really scary. We lost the signal with Lance, and we couldn’t get down to him because of the fight. By the time we got there, the locals had already dug him out and were trying to help with his injuries._

Hunk took a shuttering breath. It had been terrible to get down to the surface and see the local police waving them desperately in the direction of the field hospital. Red had been hunched low, completely powered down except for her barrier next to it. Shiro had had to lift her out with Black.

_He’ll be okay though._

Hunk appreciated that Keith put a period at the end of his sentence. He knew he was trying to reassure him.

_Yeah, he will._

He would be. Hunk knew that, but with Pidge off chasing after her brother, and Keith gone, the castle felt empty. Hunk missed them. He missed all of them.

_How do you feel about berry pie? The berries are kind of lemony, so it’s like lemon pie with the texture of blackberries._

_I feel like I’m sorry I’m not there to eat it. I love lemon bars._

Hunk’s brain immediately jumped to the ingredients they had and possible ways to adapt his aunt’s lemon bar recipe to them. He wondered if there was a way to send Keith care packages.

_What else are you making?_

Hunk started listing off everything else he had cooked since Lance went in the pod. Keith seemed to think all of it sounded good, and Hunk began to worry about what they were feeding him.

 _I’m going to lose the secure signal in a minute,_ Keith warned, _I’m glad I got to talk to you._

_It was good hearing from you. I’ll tell Lance to call when he’s out of the pod. Stay safe._

Hunk paused, then started typing quickly, hoping to get a last messages off before they lost the connection.

_You can message any of us, not just Lance. We all want to hear from you._

‘Message sent’ flashed on the screen, then a notice that the connection had been lost. It was the next day when Hunk got Keith’s reply.

_Okay._

* * *

Keith stared down at the blinking ‘signal lost’ on his comm.

He had known it would be hard to leave them. He had expected to miss them. He hadn’t thought of this though. He hadn’t thought of one of them getting hurt while he wasn’t there, hadn’t considered not being there to offer support during the fall out after, not matter how bad he was at it sometimes.

It was better for everyone that he had left. It cut through any confusion over who should be flying which Lion, and it put Shiro right back where he should be as Voltron’s head. Keith didn’t know why Shiro had ever thought he could do it.

He was much more useful to the Blades then to the team. He didn’t have the patience for coalition building or entertaining people. He was good at taking action, and he needed to feel like he was accomplishing something significant. But he still wanted to be there with them when things went bad.

Well, he couldn’t have everything. He should be used to that by now.

* * *

“Oh, come on, come on,” Pidge tapped her foot impatiently as the ‘sending request’ blinked on her screen, “Lance said this is the base he’s at.”

“So Keith used to be the Red Paladin,” Matt leaned on the back of Pidge’s chair, “then he was the Black Paladin, and now he’s a Blade of Marmora?”

“No,” Pidge tipped her head back to look up at him, “he’s still a Paladin. We’re just letting the Blades borrow him. But, yeah, he’s flown Red and Black. He did a good job as Black Paladin, but he didn’t like it.”

“Yeah, being in charge isn’t a lot of fun,” Matt wrinkled his nose.

“Don’t tell me someone was crazy enough to put you in charge,” Pidge grinned up at him.

“I’ll have you know, I was in charge of an entire reconnaissance hub,” Matt huffed.

“Yeah,” Pidge snorted, “that sounds much easier than being in charge of people.”

“No kidding,” Matt agreed.

The line connected, and Keith came up on screen in uniform, his hood up and looking a little grungy.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Are you on a mission?” Pidge’s brow wrinkled.

“No, just training,” Keith pulled his hood back, “I don’t leave on the next mission for another 16 hours.”

“Didn’t you just get back from a mission?” Pidge frowned at him.

“Like ten hours ago,” Keith shrugged.

Pidge’s eyes narrowed, then she waved her hand dismissively, “never mind, I’ll just tell Lance on you. Right now you have to meet my brother!”

Pidge jumped up from her chair and pushed Matt into it, “this is Matt!”

“Hi,” Keith waved a bit awkwardly, “I’m glad Pidge found you.”

“Me too,” Matt grinned widely, “and she’s a Paladin! It’s awesome!”

“She is,” Keith agreed, “you were the one who connected us to all the rebel cells, right?”

“Yeah,” Matt nodded, “well, Katie started connecting with them while she was looking for me, but I had ways to contact a lot of the leaders.”

“It’s helped a lot, so thanks,” Keith said.

“So, I’ve got to ask,” Matt leaned his chin on his hand, “where did the cow come from?”

“Kalknecker?” Keith frowned at Pidge, who just rolled her eyes, “didn’t you and Lance buy her with money you stole from the mall fountain?”

Matt snorted with laughter.

“Okay, one,” Pidge shoved Matt’s shoulder then held up a finger for emphasis, “we didn’t steal the money. People threw it away, so there’s no reason we couldn’t have it. Two, we didn’t buy Kalnecker. She was free with the video game.”

“There’s a store that gives you free cows with your video game purchases?” Matt gave her a skeptical look.

“I don’t think he knew what a cow was,” Pidge said thoughtfully.

Keith snickered, “Lance said he wanted to go back and see if he could get another one. He thinks Kalknecker needs the company.”

“I’d be down for that,” Matt nodded, “twice the milkshakes.”

“We got banned from that mall though,” Keith pointed out.

“You got banned from a mall?” Matt looked up at Pidge with a gleam in his eyes, “what did you do?”

“It wasn’t my fault!” Pidge protested, “it was totally Keith’s fault.”

“It was not!” Keith tried to sound offended, but he was laughing too hard, “it was Hunk’s.”

* * *

“So how are you liking being Shiro’s right hand?” Keith rested his chin on his hand tiredly, “it’s got to be easier than being mine.”

Lance looked no less tired and was slumped at his station on the bridge, half in and half out of his armor. They had both just come off missions, and when Keith realized they would have a secure connection for long enough for a video call, he had taken advantage of it.

Lance shrugged, picking idly at some kind of pink sludge that had been ground into the sleeve of his under suit near the wrist, “he doesn’t really need a second the way you did.”

Keith wasn’t sure he had the energy to take that as an insult, and he didn’t think Lance had necessarily meant it that way. Entirely. At least not maliciously.

“He still needs help with stuff,” Keith’s brows knit together slightly.

“Nah,” Lance flicked a pink flake towards the screen, “he just wants someone who can keep up. Which means we really should be talking about why you’re not here flying Red.”

“Lance…” Keith rubbed his eyes, as if that would somehow make the pressure building behind them go away, “we talked about this.”

“No, we didn’t,” Lance gave him a sour look, “we talked about you hating the shaking hands and kissing babies routine…”

“The what?” Keith blinked, wondering if he was really that tired, or Lance was just being incomprehensible as usual, “I like babies, but going around randomly kissing them would weird people out.”

“And we talked about having one too many paladins,” Lance waved away the objection, “but we didn’t talk about why you should be taking Red back.”

“No, I shouldn’t!” Keith protested with more venom then he meant.

“Look,” Lance blew a huff of air out, “Red only chose me because you and Allura would have eaten each other, and Blue wanted her, anyway.”

“That’s not true!”

“Red chose you first because you were a good fit for Shiro’s second,” Lance ignored him again, “now that Shiro is the Black Paladin again, you should be flying Red.”

“That’s not how this works,” Keith argued back, “and you’re a good Red Paladin and a great second.”

“For you, not for Shiro.”

“He needs…”

“Keith!” the volume of Pidge’s yell had Lance practically falling out of his chair in surprise.

“Hey Pidge,” Keith slumped, grateful for the interruption.

“You look terrible,” Pidge leaned in close to the screen.

“Thanks,” Keith ignored Lance’s snickering.

“Seriously, are you alright?” Pidge frowned at him.

“Yeah,” Keith waved a hand dismissively, “I just got back from a mission, and I haven’t had a chance to get cleaned up.”

“Well, don’t leave yet. Everyone will want to say hi,” Pidge pushed Lance’s shoulder as she darted by him towards the door, “don’t let him leave.”

“Because he ever listens to me,” Lance grumbled as Pidge went yelling down the hall.

“Why is she getting everyone?” Keith wrinkled his nose.

“Keith is on?” Hunk called from out in the hall.

“Because we miss you, you dork,” Lance rolled his eyes.

Keith’s cheeks colored slightly, but he didn’t get a chance to answer before Hunk was hurrying into the room.

“You look terrible,” Hunk sat on the arm of Lance’s chair, “are you eating enough?”

Keith’s answer was interrupted by Shiro, who wanted to know if he was sleeping enough, and his answer to Shiro was interrupted by Allura, who wanted to know about his training, and he didn’t get far into that before Pidge was back, perching on Lance’s other arm rest and leaning on his head.

They were loud, talking over each other, asking Keith questions faster than he could answer, starting stories only to interrupt each other with forgotten details or tangent stories.

Keith would have been happy to listen to them forever.

* * *

Lance stepped off the ice, using a hand on the rail to balance as he put the covers on his skates. Coran said they were done with ice shows, which was kind of sad. It had been a lot of fun. The plan was to melt off the ice and switch out the arena for something different tomorrow.

Lance had decided to take advantage of the rink one more time before they did, because who knew when they would get to ice skate again.

His comm buzzed, and he boosted himself up to sit on the rail before looking at it.

_WTF_

Lance snickered, not even surprised. Maybe a little surprised. He hadn’t thought Keith would bother watching.

 _Context?_ he texted back

_Voltron on ice?_

_Yes!_

_Why?_

Lance grinned, _It’s fun! Also people love it! And Us! It’s building good will._

_It looks annoying. For the first time, I’m glad I’m not there._

Something sparked angry in Lance and caught in his throat. It took him a few minutes to process exactly what had caused it. He wasn’t surprised or even hurt that Keith wouldn’t want to be here putting on shows; it just wasn’t something Keith would want to do.

‘For the first time’ though, made him angry, made his head trip over the same argument they had been having since this had started.

If he hadn’t wanted to leave, he should have stayed with them, no matter what was going on with the Lions or the Blades. They missed him, they wanted him back with them, and he didn’t even want to be gone.

Being angry at Keith had never accomplished anything. He shut down, and he shut them out. But he had shut them out anyway, and he had made a choice that was his to make, but also not his. It should have been theirs, all of theirs, because it left all of them feeling lost, feeling like there were pieces missing, and Keith hadn’t even wanted it.

_Lance?_

Lance took a shaky breath and rubbed his hand over his face, _Allura does a great impression of you. She has your scowl down._

_Funny._

_She hasn’t quite mastered throwing herself recklessly into danger yet,_ Lance stuck his tongue out at the screen even though Keith couldn’t see him.

_Double funny. Don’t fall and hurt yourself playing on the ice. I have to go._

Lance wanted to tell him to just come home, but it didn’t seem like that would do any good at all.

_Stay safe. We miss you._

* * *

“I just think this seems risky,” Shiro folded his arms over his chest, shifting nervously.

Lance released the rope, rolling down and catching himself a few feet from the ground. He smirked quietly at Shiro’s flinch, wrapping the rope around his waist and leg so he could hang comfortably upside down, then let his legs fall into a split. The stretch felt nice.

“Relax Shiro,” Lance grinned up at him, “it’ll be fun. I haven’t gotten to do this in forever.”

“You’re going to slide down a rope, upside down, hanging off a ten story tall war ship, with no net or safety gear of any kind, for publicity,” Shiro summarized, “what could possibly go wrong?”

“We’ll have our armor on,” Lance dropped his hands down reaching until his fingers just barely touched the ground.

He debated kicking free of the rope and rolling out of the fall just to freak Shiro out, but stretching like he was felt too good. He should really do this more often just for that.

“Your armor is not going to protect you from a fall that high,” Shiro huffed.

“No, but I bet my jetpack would be pretty useful,” Lance snorted; Shiro was such a worry wart sometimes.

“I… guess,” Shiro clearly hadn’t thought of that, but he wasn’t quite ready to let this go either, “still, I know Coran was excited when you suggested this, but I’m starting to worry about Coran’s priorities in all of this. He’s been acting kind of off.”

“Yeah, the accent is weird,” Lance admitted, “but this will be fun, Shiro. And I’ll be totally fine, really.”

“I just think…” Shiro was interrupted by Lance’s comm beeping.

Lance tried to reach it where it was sitting at the edge or the mat below him, but he couldn’t quite reach far enough.

“Hand me that, would you?” Lance flailed his hands in the direction of the comm, “that’s probably Keith.”

Shiro obliged, shifting restlessly as Lance hung upside down and texted.

“So how is Keith?” he asked finally.

Lance paused in his typing to raise an eyebrow at him, “you could just call him, you know.”

“I don’t want to interrupt his training,” Shiro hunched his shoulders, “if he wants to talk with me, I’m sure he’ll let me know.”

Lance stopped texting, giving Shiro the most unimpressed look Shiro had ever seen on him, then righted himself, wrapping the rope around his legs so he could sit comfortably upright.

“You both are idiots,” Lance said, “first of all, he’s not even really training. They just keep sending him on missions and hoping he doesn’t die. Second, he is never going to call you first. He is Keith, and that is not how Keith works.”

Lance was actually pretty sure that Keith thought Shiro was disappointed in him. He had almost managed to get him to talk about it a couple times, but he always changed the subject. It wasn’t Lance he needed to talk to about it, though.

“Why wouldn’t he just…?” Shiro looked very perplexed.

“Just talk to him,” Lance held out his phone, “pretend like you’re a grown up.”

“I am a grown up,” Shiro glared, snapping the phone away from him.

“Oh please” Lance twisted free of the rope and climbed up higher, “I’ve seen you eat ice cream for breakfast and put three of those weird fake caffeine boosts in your coffee at the same time.”

“Ice cream is just dairy,” Shiro griped as he texted, “you put milk on your cereal.”

“Oh yeah, that’s totally the same,” Lance snorted, straightening his arms and pretending to walk on air right above Shiro’s head.

Shiro reached up to flick his foot before sitting on the edge of the mat, already thoroughly engrossed in his conversation with Keith.

* * *

“So, two questions.”

“Only two?” Pidge pulled at the innards of a droid of unknown origin, her ear piece leaving her hands free for maximum destruction.

“First question,” Keith ignored the jab, “what is a flytzal mac protocol? I don’t remember that one.”

Pidge gave an aggravated yell and ripped out a handful of wiring, “I told Coran he couldn’t just make up ‘science-y words’! I told him it was stupid and would confuse people, but did he listen to me? No! He said it didn’t matter! He said no one would notice! Shows what he knows!”

Keith wasn’t doing the best job suppressing his snickering, but Pidge couldn’t hear him over her ranting.

“Just be glad you’re not Hunk,” he said when she finally wound down.

“Shiro has told him three times to stop playing that sound track, and he won’t listen,” Pidge huffed, “Hunk is so frustrated, he’s stress baking again. Which is good for the rest of us, but still. Coran has gone crazy. I’ll be glad when we’re done with these.”

“I’m not sorry I’m missing them,” Keith said, “how many more do you have?”

“Two I think, maybe three,” Pidge started reconnecting wires in the droid, “Coran keeps hinting that he’s got some kind of spectacle in store for the last one, but I’m too afraid to ask.”

“I would be too,” Keith agreed, “so, second questions.”

“Yeah?”

“Has Allura started answering to my name yet?” Keith managed to sound completely serious.

Pidge gave a startled bark of laughter and accidently shocked herself a little, “no, but she growls every time someone calls her that, even in the show, and it’s really funny, but we’re not supposed to ‘break character’ and laugh.”

“Your mics don’t pick up the growl. Do you have any clips of it?” Keith asked.

“Oh yeah,” Pidge pushed back from her droid and turned to her laptop, “we’ve got some from back stage, too. Lance and I are thinking about making a compilation video of it for her.”

“I’m sure she’d love that,” Keith snorted.

“We were going to pretend like a ‘fan’ sent it,” Pidge flipped through the clips on her laptop.

“The behind the scenes stuff might tip her off that it’s one of you,” Keith pointed out.

“True,” Pidge allowed.

She paused on a clip of all of them at the breakfast table. Everyone looked sleepy except Coran, who was talking excitedly about “Keith’s” part in the next show. Allura snarled at him over her bowl of crunchy-ish goo cereal, and Lance snorted milk out of his nose.

It was strange to see them all there without Keith at the table, but Pidge pushed the feeling away. This was what Keith wanted, and she didn’t want to stop him from that.

“Here,” she sent him the file, “now you too can enjoy Lance snorting milk out of his nose.”

She could hear the clip play over the line and Keith snickering.

“At least you didn’t have to go very far to replace me,” he said when the clip finished.

Pidge huffed, wishing they were on a video chat so Keith could see how unimpressed she was.

“She’s a lousy you,” Pidge informed him, “she’s a much better Blue Paladin than fake Keith.”

There was a pause before Keith answered, “Coran should just let her be the Blue Paladin in the show.”

“Yes,” Pidge agreed, “but Coran is crazy!”

* * *

“So it was real?” Keith frowned.

“Yeah,” Shiro rubbed the back of his head, “it turns out Coran voluntarily infected himself with a brain sucking parasite to try and give himself a metal boost.”

“Gross,” Keith wrinkled his nose, “is he okay?”

“He’s fine,” Shiro assured him, “it was kind of rough on his nervous system, and Allura made him spend a couple hours in a pod. He’s mostly just embarrassed.”

“I’m glad he’s okay,” Keith relaxed.

“Us too,” Shiro nodded, “it worked though. We have a huge amount of support for the coalition and the next major offensive.”

“So, the moral of the story is that it’s okay to voluntarily let a parasite suck your brain as long as it works out?” Keith offered.

Shiro snorted, “I think the moral of the story is never trust Unilu traders.”

“You know Coran is just going to barter with the next one he finds anyway, right?” Keith leaned his head on his hand with a smirk.

“Oh yeah,” Shiro nodded, “according to Coran, this is nothing compared to the trouble he and King Alfor used to get into in their younger days.”

“That’s a little concerning,” Keith meant it, but he was smiling anyway.

“Apparently, he tells Lance all the ‘good’ stories,” Shiro made finger quotes around the word, “Lance says if even half of them are true, Coran has really mellowed with age.”

“It is really hard to picture Allura’s dad doing something like that,” Keith admitted.

“Getting into trouble must be a Red Paladin thing,” Shiro smirked.

“Is Lance getting in trouble again?” Keith's expression was oddly neutral for ribbing Lance.

“No more than usual,” Shiro didn’t push, “he almost got carried off by a group of fan girls after the last show.”

Keith snorted, “I’m sure he saw that as the opposite of a problem.”

“He was a little put out when I stopped him,” Shiro grinned, “if it wasn't such a security risk to let a group of strangers drag him off to an unknown location, I might have let him. He probably would have had fun. Maybe after this offense, we’ll have some time to set up a couple meet and greets. Most of the team would probably enjoy that.”

“I looked over the preliminary plans for that,” Keith said.

“What do you think?” Shiro was surprised Keith had already read them; they had only sent them a few hours ago.

“The Blades will probably take the ground cannon. Our skill set is better suited to that then the Rebels’ would be.” Keith said thoughtfully.

“That's how Lance said it would probably shake out, but we wanted to give you options,” Shiro nodded, then gave Keith a speculative look, “what are your plans for after?”

“After?” Keith repeated in confusion.

“After the offensive,” Shiro clarified, “are you planning on staying on with the Blades or coming home?”

“I guess I’ll stay with the Blades,” Keith shifted uneasily in his chair, “that’s where I’m the most useful.”

“Keith,” Shiro hesitated as if unsure of himself, “I want you to be able get whatever training you want, and find something that gives you a sense of purpose, and be able to grow, but I have some serious concerns about the mortality rates with the Blades.”

“The way the Blades do things works,” Keith protested.

“I know it does,” Shiro help up his hands placatingly, “I just worry about what the cost is, and I worry about you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Shiro. I’m fine,” for a moment Keith looked like any other teenager being told not to stay out past curfew, “and I’m good at this.”

“Of course you are,” Shiro shook his head, “I just wish you weren’t quite so on your own. I know you have the other Blades’ backs, and I know you watch each other’s backs, but I also know the Blades will leave people behind before they’ll compromise the mission, and I don’t want that for you.”

“That’s just the way it is,” Keith said as if it was inevitable, “at least I’m useful with them.”

“Keith, you were useful with us,” Shiro huffed, “you don’t have to get yourself killed to be useful.”

“I know it’s better when it doesn’t come to that,” Keith sunk down in his chair.

“Well, that’s a start at least,” Shiro sighed, “just promise me you’ll be careful, okay?”

“You’re such a mother hen,” Keith snorted.

“Keith,” Shiro dragged his name out into a whine.

“I’ll promise to try my best if you will,” Keith crossed his arms stubbornly.

“If that’s what it takes, I promise,” Shiro said without hesitation.

“Promise,” Keith echoed.

“Thanks,” Shiro’s shoulders relaxed minutely, “also, maybe think about coming back for a while after this is done. We all really miss you.”

Keith shifted in his chair, looking anywhere but at Shiro, “I’ll think about it.”

* * *

Lance fidgeted restlessly in Red’s cockpit, fingers drumming on the controls as they waited for everyone to get into place so they could launch.

This was a lot more pressure than the average mission, and there were so many moving parts and so many ways that things could go wrong. It was definitely one of those missions where the butterflies in his stomach outweighed his eagerness to launch.

Red nudged against him, confident in their abilities in the upcoming battle, and Lance smiled.

“Yeah,” Lance patted her controls, “we’ll smoke them for sure.”

He would be fine as soon as they started moving. It was always the waiting that was the hardest. Lance’s foot tapped restlessly, and unable to hold still any longer, he reached out and flipped open a private channel.

“What’s wrong?” Keith’s helmet dissolved as he turned towards the screen.

“Nothing,” Lance assured him quickly, “we’re just waiting to launch. Just wanted to say good luck.”

“Thanks,” Keith smiled.

“Also, we aren’t going to be anywhere near you to bail you out, so be careful,” Lance shifted restlessly, foot going back to tapping.

The Blade standing behind Keith made an amused sound, and Keith gave him an unimpressed look over his shoulder before turning back to Lance.

“It will be….”

“Keith!” suddenly Pidge’s window popped up on the screen.

“Pidge, this is a private line,” Lance huffed.

“Not when I’m around, it’s not,” Pidge smirked.

“Are we telling Keith to stay out of trouble?” Hunk’s window popped up as well.

“I’m not the one who’s always getting into trouble,” Keith protested.

“You got us banned from a mall,” Lance pointed out.

“That’s was Hunk’s fault!” Keith insisted.

“Yeah,” Hunk agreed, “it kind of was.”

“Thank you!” Keith threw his hands up.

“What are you three…?” Allura popped up on the connection as well, “oh, Keith. Good luck with your mission. I know you won’t really need it.”

“Thanks,” Keith’s shoulders relaxed.

“We’re counting down to launch,” Shiro interrupted, “good luck, Keith. Stay safe.”

“Yeah,” Keith swallowed, “you too.”

“We’ll see you when we’re done,” Shiro gave him a reassuring smile.

“Okay,” Keith let out a breath, “I’ll see you all when it’s over.”

The video feeds cut out, and Red’s cockpit dimmed as they prepared for launch. Lance’s shoulders relaxed as he watched the launch chute open above him, a perfect circle of stars twinkling invitingly.

There was no more room for worry. It was go time.

* * *

If Keith was being honest with himself, he was hiding. He didn’t want to deal with other people’s overwhelming emotions or being lectured. He didn’t want to be asked what he thought should come next or where he was planning on going.

He didn’t know. He didn’t have any answers at all, and his head felt like a void, dragging everything in and giving nothing back. He just didn’t want anything at that moment, and he wanted everything too, and it left him feeling like he was drifting.

He wasn’t hiding well, and he knew it. It wasn’t going to take a genius to figure out he was in his room, and given that they currently had three certifiable geniuses on board, maybe four if they counted Coran, it was just a matter of time before someone tracked him down.

For now though, it felt good to be back in a familiar place. He had gotten used to the various bases the Blades used, but none of them had ever felt like this, felt settled.

His room had changed a little bit since he left, small gifts left for him like promises that he would come back. There was a new blanket folded at the foot of the bed, soft and fleecy, maybe big enough to cocoon himself in like a caterpillar. There were new clothes in his closet, mostly things that were probably parts of matching sets. Everything in red, or red and black, or red and white.

He liked the sweats, black with a red stripe down the legs and the Voltron logo on the hip. He had put them on after he had showered. It felt so good to be out of armor and really clean. It had been a long time. There had also been a shirt with Allura’s face on it that said “Lone Wolf Keith” under the picture and “Arhooo!” on the back. It was obviously a real photo of her, it had obviously been taken right before Allura sneezed, and it had obviously been left there by Pidge. It had made Keith cackle, so he was wearing it.

There were books on his nightstand. Real books that Hunk or Pidge must have run through the translator then printed out and bound, because they knew Keith liked real books. There was some kind of vaguely hippo shaped stuffed animal on his bed, and he would have blamed Lance, but only Shiro would have thought to get him a hippo.

His room was full of the quiet whispers that they had never doubted that he would come back, that they had wanted him home.

Keith let out a shuttering breath and buried his head in his hands. He had wanted to come home; he had never really wanted to leave them. He just didn’t know how to make all the pieces fit anymore.

“Hey,” Lance let himself in, not bothering to knock or ask permission.

Keith took a deep breath to try to pull together everything that was fraying. If he had to sit through a lecture, there were worst people than Lance to get it from.

Lance sat on the bed beside him, legs stretched out and leaning back on his hands, a forced casualness that Keith didn’t buy at all.

“So I talked to Coran,” Lance stared up at the ceiling, avoiding looking at Keith.

“And you drew the short end of the stick and got sent to yell at me,” Keith rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“I’m not sure anyone else knows yet,” Lance shrugged, “and honestly, Hunk will just cry on you, which is kind of worse than being yelled at.”

Keith squeezed his eyes closed, then risked looking at Lance. He was still staring up at the ceiling, expression oddly contemplative.

“I do kind of want to yell at you,” Lance admitted, “but the truth is, I would have done the same thing. Shiro and Allura would have too.”

Keith’s chest tightened, and he drew in a sharp breath. He understood they were at war, he understood people died, and he had known for a long time now that he would be willing to die if it meant protecting people. It was different, though, thinking about the people he loved doing the same thing, making a choice that was guaranteed to end in their death.

“I mean, let’s be real, Hunk and Pidge would have come up with something genius and not needed to,” Lance’s hands clenched slightly in the blankets, “and it’s a 50 / 50 toss up with Coran. He knows so many random things that he might have had something that would work, but if not, well, he would have done the same thing too.”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Keith admitted quietly, “everything was happening so fast, and we were running out of time. It was the only thing that made sense. If that bomb had gone off…”

“Yeah,” Lance dropped his gaze, “I know.”

“I don’t know what other options there were,” Keith felt frustration start to rise up, “I couldn’t have asked someone else to do it.”

“I know,” Lance took a breath to steady himself, “I’m not sure I think you made the wrong call, it’s just…”

Lance paused, seemingly unable to find the right words for a moment. Keith waited, gaze fixed on his bare feet and hands gripping the edge of his bed.

“I know you’re impulsive sometimes,” Lance said, “but I also know you don’t make choices like that without considering all the factors you can, so just… that feeling you got when you thought about it being Shiro, or Allura, or me instead, make sure that’s one of the factors you take into account from now on.”

Keith was quiet, not sure how to respond. He didn’t know if that would really change anything, but Lance was right that that wasn’t something he had thought about in that moment. He had just wanted the team safe, he had wanted them to live, and everyone else too.

“You know it would have just about killed us to lose you, right?” Lance finally turned to look at him.

He looked exhausted, more rung out then Keith had ever seen him. It had been a hard battle on their end of things, too, and Lance probably hadn’t really had the energy to deal with finding out that Keith had almost killed himself. But here he was.

It was almost always someone else who initiated physical affection with Keith, but this time Keith grabbed Lance by the arm, pulling him into a tight hug. He had missed them. He had missed all of them, and he hadn’t liked being away from them.

Lance made a startled noise, but returned the hug without hesitation. He pressed his face against Keith’s shoulder and squeezed him tight.

“Okay,” Keith’s voice felt heavy on his tongue, and he tightened his grip.

Some of the tension drained from Lance’s body, and Keith felt some of the pressure in his chest finally ease.

“So, I know you’re having fun being a secret space ninja,” Lance’s voice came out muffled against his shoulder, “but maybe you could just stay home for a while. We’ve really missed you.”

“Yeah,” Keith breathed out, “I’d like that.”

“Good,” Lance straightened, “also, you need to wear that shirt somewhere Pidge and Hunk can see you. Hunk owes Pidge 20 GAC, and I want nothing to do with their bets, so don’t make me vouch for you wearing it.”

“What?” Keith gave him a confused look, then looked down at the shirt he was wearing, “oh. It’s funny.”

“It’s hysterical,” Lance agreed, “you should see some of the pictures I have from it.”

“You have pictures?” Keith perked up slightly.

“So many,” Lance grinned, “it was…”

“Keith!”

They both jumped at the wail, and Lance wisely pushed himself back against the wall and out of the way as Hunk came barreling into the room.

“I guess Hunk found out,” Lance said dryly as Keith practically disappeared into Hunk’s massive hug.

“You almost died,” Hunk sobbed into Keith’s hair, “I can’t believe you almost died. Don’t do that again. My heart can’t take it.”

“I’m alright,” Keith patted Hunk’s arm awkwardly, unable to free his arms to give him a proper hug.

“But you almost weren’t,” Hunk squeezed him tighter, “less than a second, and you wouldn’t have been.”

“I…” Keith stumbled over trying to comfort Hunk and be honest at the same time.

“You jerk!” Pidge appeared in the doorway, her hair looking particularly wild, and stomped her way over to Keith, “don’t you ever do anything like that again!”

“That’s…” Keith tried.

She couldn’t punch him in the arm with Hunk clinging to him, so she punched him in the thigh. Hard.

“Ow,” Keith protested.

“Do anything like that again, and I’ll punch you in the nose,” Pidge forced her way into the hug, arms wrapping tight around his waist.

“Sorry for scaring you,” Keith still couldn’t get his arms free from Hunk, so hugging Pidge was difficult, but he managed.

“You’re grounded,” Pidge pushed her face into the crook of his neck, and Keith could feel her tears, “you’re not allowed to leave ever again.”

Lance snorted with laughter behind them, “I’m pretty sure only Shiro is allowed to ground him.”

“I have codes to every single ship on this castle,” Pidge lifted her head to glare at him, “If I say he’s grounded, he’s grounded.”

“You’re kind of terrifying, you know that?” Keith grinned at her.

“You just remember that next time you decide to try something so stupid,” Pidge buried her face back into his shoulder.

“I will take it into consideration,” Keith nodded dutifully.

The door slid open again, and Shiro came in with Allura at his shoulder. Hunk eased up his grip, and Pidge shifted around to drape herself over Keith’s back, pointy chin digging into the top of his head.

“Tell him he’s grounded, Shiro,” Pidge demanded.

Shiro ignored her, coming to sit in the space on the bed they had opened up for him, and Lance drew his knees up to make more room for him.

“Keith, are you alright?” there was no room for Shiro to put a hand on Keith’s shoulder, so he settled for putting one on his knee.

“Yeah,” Keith nodded, and Pidge’s chin dug into his hair a little more, “I’m okay.”

“Good,” Shiro swallowed, squeezing Keith’s knee, and his other hand reached back absently to rub Lance’s shin, seeming to just need more contact, “I’m glad you’re not hurt.”

“Keith,” Allura stopped in front of him, looking down, hands folded in front of her as if she was about to give a prepared speech.

Keith forced himself to look up, bracing for what she would say. Allura really could go either way; she could understand the way Lance did, or she could be angry like Pidge.

“What you did was very brave, but” Allura wavered, “it’s just… you must understand we would never want that. We would never want to lose you.”

“I know,” Keith nodded and arms tightened around him, “but I don’t want anything to happen to any of you either.”

“Then you better stay here and make sure of that,” Hunk grumbled into the side of Keith’s head, “also, so we can keep an eye on you. You get into way too much trouble.”

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Keith glanced over his shoulder at Lance, who grinned back.

“I’m so glad,” all the tension drained from Allura, and she dropped down to hug Keith from the front, which was the only space open at this point, “we’ve missed you.”

“Missed you guys too,” Keith leaned into them, and they wrapped him up tighter, Pidge grabbing Lance by the sleeve and pulling him in, and Shiro trying to get his arms around all of them.

They sat together for a while, just breathing, but eventually Pidge straightened.

“You owe me 20 GAC,” she told Hunk.

“What?” Hunk straightened as well, then looked down at Keith’s shirt, “I can’t believe you actually wore it.”

Keith shrugged, smirking a little at Allura’s offended look as she settled back on her knees. Lance snickered close to his ear, and Shiro tried to muffle his laughter.

“You can keep the lone wolf title,” Keith told Allura with a smile, “I don’t want it.”

“I think it’s time we retire the lone wolf title,” Allure shook her head, “it doesn’t really suit any of us.”

**Author's Note:**

> So [Ellie Rossi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBbqouimDAQ&t=3s) is a great person to watch on YouTube as a reference for Lance's rope aerobatics. She uses a rope like Lance did instead of the two silks.


End file.
